United Airlines has announced it will increase its service between Washington Dulles and Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport (Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation). United is set to increase its flights from three times per week to the Nigerian city of Lagos to daily flights. These flights are set to begin from December 4, 2024, to February 14, 2025. In all, United is planning to operate six routes to Africa to four countries (South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Morocco). This is a new record for United’s presence in Africa.
United to greatly increase flights with Nigeria
United Airlines’ announcement represents a 133% year-on-year increase in seats between Washington D.C. and Lagos (arch-rival Delta also operates nonstop flights from the US to Lagos). United launched its Washington-Lagos service in 2021 (flights were suspended between 2010 and 2016) with a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner filling the role. These United Dreamliners are fitted with 28 United Polaris business class seats, 21 United Premium Plus premium economy seats, 36 Economy Plus seats, and a further 158 standard economy seats.
The flight distance from Washington Dulles to Lagos is 5,442 miles, and the scheduled flight time is 10 hours and 40 minutes. According to information provided by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, for the month of August, United has scheduled flights to Lagos departing on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. These three flights have a one-way weekly capacity of 729 seats (with 243 seats on each flight).
In January 2025, United’s Washington Dulles to Lagos flights are scheduled to increase to seven weekly flights with a total of 1,701 seats in each direction.
US connections with Africa
The United States remains poorly connected to Africa. While the continent is home to 56 countries, US-based airlines only offer flights to five (Delta also operates flights to Senegal). Only Morocco in North Africa is served by US-based airlines (Delta once served Egypt, but these flights have since been terminated). That said, some Africa-based airlines offer flights to the United States (e.g. Egyptair operates flights to North America).
African countries are also often poorly connected with each other, and West African countries are often better connected with Europe than other destinations in Africa.
United also operates flights to Accra in Ghana as well as Capetown and Johannesburg in South Africa. Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and South Africa are the only sub-Saharan countries directly served by US-based airlines. United is also due to add flights to Morocco’s popular oasis city of Marrakesh in October. For its part, Delta Air Lines sees potential in Africa and is looking to expand its presence on the continent.